Living in Jimbaran..

Still in Jimbaran!
I realised that this is by far the longest I've been in the one place whilst travelling! It's nice having a temporary 'home' to come back to every day and no long bus/train/plane journies and lugging your bags around to find a new place are definitely positives. I do miss the 'backpacker' scene though; staying at a hostel with a common room to read, watch movies, and meet other travellers. I'm looking forward to getting back amongst it in India. Food is definitely easier to find in backpacker areas. Most of the local warungs here don't seem to open until late afternoon, so breakfast and lunch are a bit harder to find. For breakfast I've arranged with my 'hotel' to provide me with some toast, tea, and fruit (at a price). For lunch when I'm not at work I end up getting Nasi Campur which is food in a 'buffet' style set out that has all been cooked and sitting there for who knows how long. Haven't have a problem with it (stomach-wise) but I do tend to feel ripped off by the owners who I'm sure charge me Western prices (there's no menu so you never know how much it's going to cost until it's all served up on your plate). I have a favourite warung that I got to for dinner every night because it's the tastiest and cheapest in walking distance.. mie goreng ayam (noodles with chicken) is only 8000rp (just less than $1) and a mixed fruit juice is 5000rp! mmmmmm.

These last two days have been Ramadan and so the office has been shut. I've been hanging around with friends I'd made in Ubud and Sanur who came out and visited me yesterday. We then went and spent the night at Owain's house watching movies (YAY!). Owain host couch surfers and the three Russian girls he'd had renting rooms there for the last month had bought a seafood feast to celebrate their last night in Bali. They must have had at least a kilo of huge prawns plus clams. They marinated them and fried them up on the bbq... I must have eaten at least 10 huge prawns... sooooo goooooooood!


Today I went on a massive shopping expedition with Karley from California (on the left). Went to some of the huge shopping malls around the area. At the Discovery Shopping Mall, which is on Kuta beach, they had a 'cultural display' of two girls doing some traditional Balinese dancing. It was definitely interesting, especially with the juxtaposition of the traditional costumes and the 'Myer' style cosmetic counters. I bought some new sunglasses to replace my last pair that snapped as well as some baggy 3/4 pants to wear to India.. for less than $10 altogether.


Back to work tomorrow!
Amiee x

Setting up camp in Jimbaran

I've just finished my first week of work experience at Grounds Kent in Jimbaran, Bali. Steve left early on Wednesday morning (:() and now I've set up camp in Jimbaran for the rest of my time here! I'm quite fond of the place, you might recall this is the quieter beach with 5 star resorts and fresh seafood restaurants on the beach. With the help of my moto driver (who was a very kind man from my last hotel who drove me around for ages and only wanted me to pay for fuel cost) and my puppy eyes I managed to bargain the owner of the 'hotel' down half price!



I live close enough to 'work' that I can walk there in the morning, which is a nice walk past the beach, even if a portion of it is very steep uphill (the office is on up on the headland of Jimbaran Pentai). It's good because it kinds of makes up for all the exercise I'm missing by sitting inside at a computer all day. Locals seem very concerned when they see me walking to work. One guy who was driving past on his moto asked if he could help me, the receptionist from the office gave me a lift home yesterday because she was concerned about my safety with the street dogs about, and another staff member suggested I wear a cloth over my face when walking near the beach because it's very sandy/dusty (they're doing some work on the road there)! Very amusing but sweet that they're concerned.

Walking to and from work I exchange smiles and occasionally small talk with every local I make eye contact with. It's really nice, like you'd expect in your local neighbourhood. Walking home from work this afternoon a couple of little girls popped out behind a pile of bricks and shouted "HELLO!!!!" with so much enthusiasm it made me laugh. It's funny though, I am yet to get a hello or even a smile out of a Westerner. In fact, it's hard to even make eye contact. I always look at them to try and say hello but never get so much as a look. It's really bizarre considering that most people in this area would be staying in the 4/5 star resorts (there's little else here in the way of accommodation, and the resorts are the main drawcard here)and yet watching them walk past they all seem so shut off and unhappy. Especially compared to the locals, who in comparison, have so little!


Had my first site visit at work yesterday to a mockup of a one bedroom villa that the firm has designed for an extension of a resort in the Nusa Dua area. Very different to an Australian construction site methinks... no white card needed.. or any sort of safety protocols at all haha. Was very interesting. One of the founding partners, Martin, was explaining that in the 70s there was a big concern about hotels in the Kuta area being 'dangerously unsanitary', and so the government set up electricity, water, and sewerage to the Nusa Dua area and ruled that all 5 star hotels must be built in that area. The area is crammed with all the big name resorts, but now the restriction is no longer in place.


Oh I almost forgot! What's a blog post without a rash update, right?! Here is a picture of how lovely and blistery my latest rashed looked before I got my antihistimines. Thanks a lot RID tropical strength insect repellant. Took about 4 days but it eventually went down and I am currently RASH FREE!! Woo! Although my skin is a little scarred from it. Physically and emotionally. Haha.

Looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow morning and then a day at the beach trying to achieve a tan! My days in the office have been hindering my progress! I've got another week at Grounds Kent and then I fly out the following Tuesday morning to INDIA!!

Amiee xx

Bali Album

https://picasaweb.google.com/amiee.groundwater/Bali

Last few days in Ubud - Monkies, Rice Terraces, Cremation

I thought I'd better do a quick update before I get too behind on things! The last few days have been very hectic!

On the 17th we rented some mountain bikes and rode firstly to the Monkey Forest temple. It was a beautifully green place with really old trees and moss covered stone. The monkies were hilarious to watch and were eeeeeverywhere! Next we rode to the Elephant Cave. I'm really not sure how it got that name but it was supposedly 'built' 700 years ago and inhabited by some monks and not 'discovered' until the 20s. Neither of us really enjoyed it.. it wasn't anything really spectacular and was just ruined by being so touristy. Next we rode an arduous 10km uphill to the rice terraces at Tegalalalalalalalalalang... I can't remember the exact spelling but the views were beautiful.



The next day was the ceremony for the cremation of the King's mother. HUGE day, HUGE ceremony, HUGE crowds. It was really unbelievable. There was a 25m tower built to carry the coffin, as well as a giant bull which was to house the body for the cremation. These were carried by groups of men 1km to the cremation site from the Palace in the centre of Ubud. It took several hours to move. They had to cut all the power lines over the main road in order to get the tower through, leaving pretty much the entire town without electricity.. which didn't really matter because the entire town was on the streets! Thousands of men from surrounding villages took turns in carrying the tower and the bull. Unfortunately for them, the bamboo carrying structure of the bull broke halfway and they had to drag it the rest of the way. It was the first cremation I've seen and it really wasn't as graceful as I'd imagined. The body was taken out of the coffin and place inside the giant bull and then little walls were built around the legs of the bull to house the fuel for the fire. I think what was supposed to happen was that once the structure of the bull was burnt, the body was to drop into the 'fire pit' and finish burning, but one of the structural inner beams of the bull didn't quite burn through and so the body was kind of suspended underneath the bull for all to see (althought it was wrapped up). Then a guy with a big long stick had to try to release the part that was still holding the body up, while another guy with a big blowtorch tried to speed up the burning process! They eventually got the body unhooked but not very elegantly, and the body ended up doing a spread eagled belly flop into the flames!!! When it landed the knees bent and you could see the lower leg and foot angled up in the flames! It was just unreal.



The next day we decided to go on a morning walk along a river on a route that we found in a friend's lonely planet book. Except we missed the turn off and ended up added hours onto our walk. We ended up walking over 25km in the from 9 - 3pm! Once we got back on the actual route it was beautiful but our feet were absolutely killing us so once we got back to town we indulged in an hour long reflexology foot massage.

I've had some great rashes over the last few days. One on my arms and hands was sore and yet itchy and came up blotchy and with little blister looking bits. Really pretty. Figured out that I'm allergic to the RID mosquito spray that I brought with me! Convenient. I went to a little pharmacy and bought some antihistimines and it seems to be getting better now.

We left Ubud this morning and are now in the beachside town of Sanur for the night. I was actually really sad to leave Ubud, I've really enjoyed that town and the hosts of our homestay have been so lovely and friendly that it was a bit like leaving family. The matriach of the family, Biang, whom the homestay is named after, makes us banana pancakes for breakfast in the morning because she knows they're our favourite. She was also a very useful source of information about everything that was going on with the cremation and explaining the different customs. Such lovely people!

I'll add some photos in the next couple of days. I only have a couple more days with Steve before he heads to Laos and I start working with Grounds Kent on Monday in Jimbaran.

Love you all,
Amiee

Indonesian Independence Day - 17th Aug

After the ceremony, all the schoolkids and some adults lit up the torches they'd prepared earlier and marched through the streets. Kind of reminded me of an Anzac Day school parade... but with lots of fire.

Ubud

We're in Ubud now and it's just looooooovely! We're staying in a Balinese family compound and they are just so friendly and helpful. Everything is cheaper here too. Last night we bought some mosquito coils, a large bottle of water and some toilet paper from a roadside stall and it cost just over $1 AUD. We spent yesterday walking the streets of this little charming town. Steve found himself a gym to visit for about $1.20AUD a session, which he is very pleased about. Ubud is very 'arty' and has many yoga retreats and hippy organic food cafes etc. I was looking forward to doing a bit of yoga, feeling a bit stiff after the travelling and night spent on airport floor, but the price of a single yoga class is 100,000 RP which is about $11 AUD, and I just can't bring myself to spend that when you consider we're spending 120,000 RP between us per night for our room!

We've arrived at a good time because in a few days there's going to a be a big cremation ceremony for the King's mother! Just down the road from where we're staying in fact. They've built a huge bamboo structure that's to be carried somewhere else in town with the body on it, and then burnt. There's a changeover of men carrying the structure every 20m because it's so heavy. Usually the distance between changeover is a lot greater but because the King has lots of money (and hotels, apparently) he's had an unusually large structure built. The matriach of the family whose home we're staying in, Biang, says we are very lucky as this is a very rare event and the whole street on which we're staying gets blocked off to traffic for kilometres and everyone has to walk to watch the event.


We were planning on renting bicycles and riding out to the rice terraces this morning but it's been raining since soon after we woke up! So now I've uploaded all my photos so far to picasa but it takes I think a day until it works out that I've made a new album so I can put it up as a slideshow on the side. Lots of reading today I think.

Amiee

Rash of the Day

Today's rash of the day is brought to you by ?.

I think I'll almost have to start a new segment of the blog dedicated to skin irritations.

Want to see something really hysterical?? It's what my face looked like yesterday morning when I woke up for the second time with a condition I like to call 'Mong Face':



Isn't it beautiful?? I was asked by a second shop attendant yesterday if I was part Chinese. I tried to explain that it was an allergic reaction but he insisted I must have a Chinese parent.

Eyes like Chinese

We changed hotels yesterday to a place less than half the price just off Poppies Lane in the main backpacker area. Bonus is that they have a pool! We would have liked to stay at one of the nicer (and quieter) beaches around but they tend to seriously lack budget accommodation.


So I woke up this morning with eyelids heavier than usual. Turns out my skin irritation has progressed so that the skin under my eyebrow now rests on my eyelids and my cheeks are pink and swollen like Porky Pig. Attractive. Steve joked that I was just acclimatising to Asia and were developing the eyes to match. I think I'm allergic to the vitamin E cream I brought so I've stopped using it in the hopes I'll look normal again soon.

On the way out to our morning walk on the beach we stopped at a street vendor for a before-breakfast snack of fresh pineapple and enjoyed a rather candid conversation.

Shopkeeper: Where you from?
Me: Australia.
Shopkeeper: Ahh Australia, I like your money. Hey you from Australia but your eyes like Chinese??

So I guess it's noticeable...

Kuta beach is lined with surfboards and Balinese "sufer dudes" trying to sell surf lessons. When we go out walking early morning they're all sitting eating breakfast and setting up their surf board displays. They're a cheeky bunch and become much cheekier when Steve's not around. This morning he'd gone off for a run while I kept walking and I received the following comments from several different "dudes"..

"Where you from?"
"Australia"
"No worries babe you are beauuutiful"

"Where are you going?"
"For a walk"
"Can I follow you?"

"Goooood morning sexy!"

"Oh where your boyfriend go?"
"For a run"
"Ohhh he run away from you! Come over to ussss"

In general though we've noticed how friendly the locals are here. In our previous travels we've noticed locals being only friendly until they know that they won't get the money they want out of you, but people here smile and say good morning without even trying to sell you anything. Refreshing.


This afternoon we went to Jimbaran to visit the office of Grounds Kent, where I'll be doing some work experience for two weeks, completely forgetting that it's Sunday and of course they're closed. So we walked back down to the beach and ended up having a beautiful sunset fresh seafood dinner by candlelight. Steve's treat and an amaaaazing and delicious experience!

Tomorrow morning we head by shuttle bus inland to Ubud, looking forward to it!

Amiee

Getting here..

Last night we flew from Melbourne to Darwin, got in about 1:30AM and then spent the night sleeping on the airport floor until our flight to Bali departed at 7AM. Surprisingly, I actually slept a lot. The secret to airport sleeping, I think, is a blanket. Even if you're in Darwin and it's not cold at all. I could sleep a lot better knowing I was less visible to the AFP whose airport office we were sleeping outside of, and everyone that was walking in and out of the sliding doors on our other side. Having slept most of the time there, I thought I'd conquered airport sleeping.. that is until I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror... eyes puffy, dark bags under my eyes, and dry irritated skin from the airconditioning (or perhaps the carpet?). I looked like death.
Arrived in Bali this morning, checked into our pre-booked accom. and spent the day on the beach. It's a tough life. Still adjusting to having ample time to do whatever you want and no schedule or work to do!
Bit of a difference in the quality of accommodation over the past 2 nights, heh! Shelled out a bit extra for our first night in Bali... unfortunately the room smells strongly of Morteine and moth balls.

Amiee